Dedicated, yet again, to دولة فلسطين

It's all low vibrational and inane

Azul felawen,

We don’t have much time, let’s cook.

Finally, a ‘cease-fire’. How cute. Then an Israeli drone attack of a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers delivering food, killing seven foreign aid workers. Even cuter. This is an opportunity to also point out how these 7 > 32,000. I am going to let that hang there.

Charities have announced they are suspending operations in the territory considering they cannot operate safely which means the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza will worsen; if that is even possible.

Also re: cease fire, don’t get it twisted - the US abstained from the vote, which means Washington's policy toward Israel and its position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hasn’t changed and it’s still selling and sending weapons but maybe that genocidal thing just wasn’t that cute of a lewk anymore. #madvillainshit.

It’s so low vibrational and inane even the symbolism is lost.

Youth activists organised an art activity for the hundreds of displaced children taking refuge from Israel’s bombs at al-Shifa Hospital in October 2023. I am not sure art therapy is going to get us out of this one, Beloveds.

Speaking of genocide - did y’all see what they did to al-Shifa Hospital? That did not look like a “precise and targeted operation,” more like good old fashioned urban warfare.

Israel has been waging a scorched-earth campaign and we’ve all just been sitting back; and by we, I mean the powers that be not little old me~n~you sipping on our chamomile tea and trying to find the Source.

It’s so interesting that the Nazi Holocaust of the European Jews, Western philozionism continues to be powerfully reinforced by a sense of guilt for the idea of a Jewish state.

I mean it has come full course to embrace genocide in Gaza in the name of defending this Jewish state. Babies are starving to death and they’re like yep, checks out; makes sense; inevitable, the Israeli military must exist.

Also, I just learned that one of the slogans of the Zionist movement was “A land without a people for a people without a land” and if that doesn’t epitomize settler-colonialism I don’t know what does.

flyers_for_falastin

A post shared by @flyers_for_falastin

As we know, the Zionist movement itself largely ignored the native Palestinian population. Its leaders were not Arab or Eastern Jews, but European Ashkenazi Jews.

Literally, the Archduke of Wickedness and one of the Devil’s ride or die homies, Arthur Balfour said “And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

While leading Zionists grappled with the racial antisemitism of Europe, they also expressed, shared, contributed to, and circulated many of the foundational racist tropes of nineteenth-century Western culture. Some of the basic, recycled, and derivative ideas include:

1. the non-West was manifestly inferior, and that Eastern peoples were more primitive than Western ones;

2. that the land of the indigenous peoples was largely “empty” and thus open to colonization;

3. and that colonialism was salvation,

4. and the removal of native peoples was either inevitable or necessary because these peoples were racially and mentally inferior, uncivilized, and thus without historical or ethical value.

Now, let me ask a stupid question- in these global conflicts and issues, what’s the common denominator time and time again?

Image Source

Oh, you need another vibe, my gyal. Also shout out to the ones who made it difficult for those sticky hands:

Bedouin rebels of the Arab Revolt, 1936, via US Library of Congress

Also in digging deeper, I learned so much. #stayinschool Like for example in Germany, I came across this article which was one hell of a read about how Berlin is known for world-renowned clubs and galleries attracting liberal-minded young people from all over the world yet so many pro-Palestine artists are choosing to boycott them.

You already know but after World War II, Germany split into East and West, later reuniting in 1991. Embracing this whole concept of Erinnerungskultur or ​“memory culture”, a commitment to continuously reckoning with the history of the Holocaust, Germany confronted its Nazi past, supporting Israel as part of its new national identity.

Berlin's club scene, known for radicalism, surprisingly lacks solidarity with the Palestinian cause. This reflects an ideological split: white Germans, influenced by pro-Israel views, with a foundation of Erinnerungskultu, while expat artists, sympathetic to Palestinians, clash with this perspective. This tension highlights the complexity of political discourse in Berlin's nightlife.

The baklawa is stiiiiccckkkkyyyy. Is it halal to dance with genocidal settler-colonialism apologists? #askingforafriend.

All I know is that free speech, like democracy, is a facade. Me and my mutuals been wising up.

Now as most of you know, I am not a Pablo Picasso stan at allllll, but he did say something astute and appropriate AF, describing artists as political beings, constantly aware of the heartbreaking things happening in the world. “Painting is not made to decorate apartments,” he said. “It’s an offensive and defensive weapon.” #whyigotintothisartgameinthefirstplace

My Own Promised Land by Kostis Grivakis

I don’t want this end this edition with a gory image or art inspired by the war, but in the mundane, in tatreez, in olive trees, and in ripe figs. This is only the latest installment of dispossession and expulsion and yet, to exist is to resist.

I also want to take a moment to assure you that none of my comments are flippant, rather, everything is weighed. It’s the only way I know how to deal with the onslaught and overwhelming feeling that the world has failed Gaza, Palestine as a whole, and her children, not just in seeing their suffering but in feeling it in their hearts. If not, I would be Rage, incarnate, so this is an appropriate embodied response for me. I remind myself we are all “trying to understand what makes/one’s existence, at a fixed location, a radical/act—divine even—& what makes/the existence of another, near a specific body/of water, a violence,” (George Abraham, a Palestinian-American poet).

Last note, don’t waste quality Ramadan duas. There are only six days left, make them count. Pray we all turn this anger into something beautiful. Also don’t forget your Zakat al-Fitr, make it cash, make it local. Trickle-down economics is a sham; we got to take care of each other.

Until then, all my love and Eid Mubarak to all those celebrating.

Wided

xo

P.S. Watch out for the upcoming eclipses y’all. Change is afoot.